Goodwillie: Pacquiao vs. Mayweather Build Reminiscent Of A WrestleMania Main Event

On Saturday night, millions upon millions of sports fans got the super fight they’ve been pounding the table for, which also happened to be five-plus years in the making.

Fight, being the operative word of course.

When Floyd Mayweather danced and clinched his way past Manny Pacquiao to a unanimous decision, many fans came away from the fight disappointed and there is good reason for that.

Professional wrestling is described as, “an athletic performance that combines athletics with a theatrical performance.” As much as the average sports fan may not want to admit it, this is exactly what Mayweather-Pacquiao was.

It was professional wrestling on the largest scale.

On the surface, boxing is not just a sport, but a dying sport thanks to the rise of mixed martial arts and a lack of overall starpower. In spite of this, boxing still has two competitors that, even in the back nine of their careers, are still unquestioned box office attractions—Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.

Even better, both men are polar opposites in how they carry themselves inside and outside the ring, making for a real-life babyface vs heel dynamic, reminiscent of Ric Flair-Dusty Rhodes and Shawn Michaels-Bret Hart feuds.

Mayweather, on one hand is a brash, arrogant, and selfish champion who cares not what the fans think of his character, but instead how much money he can make every time he steps in the ring.

Sound familiar?

In spite of this, Mayweather is one of the most talented boxers to ever put on a pair of gloves. His squeaky clean record of 48-0 serves as evidence of this, though his fighting style which is based around sticking, moving, and generally not bringing the fight to his opponent discourages fans. Moreover, Mayweather’s last knockout was in 2011, when he controversially finished Victor Ortiz after an accidental headbutt led to a brutal two-punch combination following a hug with the referee’s back turned.

Outside the ring, Mayweather is a convicted woman beater. On September 21, 2011, a judge sentenced the world champion to 90 days in county jail, which in this day and age looks ludicrous considering the fallout of the Ray Rice scandal. Even worse, Mayweather has since denied any wrongdoing, and prior to his weekend spell with Pacquiao, his team barred his two biggest critics on the subject, ESPN’s Michelle Beadle and CNN’s Rachel Nichols, from the building.

As disgraceful of a human being as Mayweather may be, it is hard to deny that this is mark of a true heel.

For fighting Pacquiao, Mayweather took home a purse of $179,808,511, not including any extracurricular funds. When Mayweather fights, the rich get richer, and he doesn’t give a damn what you think.

Then there’s Pacquiao—the clean-cut, came from nothing babyface who defied the odds and became a global phenomenon.

Sound familiar?

Unlike Mayweather, who was born and bred for greatness, Pacquiao had a rough childhood, having to drop out of high school due to being unable to afford it. When he turned 14, he moved to Manilla in his home country of the Philippines where he began to hone his craft before turning pro in 1995.

Since then, Pacquiao has gone on to win over fans both in his home country and all around the world with his aggressive fighting style that has garnered him 38 knockouts in 57 victories.

Unlike Mayweather, he has used his money and celebrity to become a modern day renaissance man, becoming a member of the Philippine House of Representatives, while starting side careers in basketball, singing, and acting.

Pacquiao has also overcome adversity, specifically in 2012 when young up-and-comer Timothy Bradley won a split-decision against him, becoming the first man to defeat him since 2005. The very next bout, Juan Manuel Marquez knocked Pacquiao out in the their fourth fight in what many thought to be the end for “Pac-Man.”

Pacquiao responded by handily winning his next three fights, while avenging his loss to Bradley nearly two years to the date.

In Pacquiao, promoters had found the perfect foil to Mayweather’s villainous persona, though the professional wrestling parallels do not end there.

Mayweather and his camp would constantly agitate the Pacquiao team in the five years it took to get the fight set up, including calling Pacquiao a “pawn,” and telling him as recently as January that he “has no say” in regards to the negotiation.

Finally, the fight came together, though the it was laden with controversy. Aside from having to face backlash from his previous transgressions in domestic violence, Mayweather claimed that he has done more for boxing than Muhammad Ali, which set off fellow boxing legend Mike Tyson during a pre-fight interview.

“Greatness is not guarding yourself from people,” Tyson said. “Greatness is being accepted by the people. He’s a small and scared little man.”

Of course, the fight went down as scheduled, though if Twitter is any evidence, the vast majority of viewers took issue with Mayweather’s tactics, some even going as far as to saying that Pacquiao won the fight, which the numbers clearly disprove.

In reality, all they wanted was for the heel to get his comeuppance from a babyface that those same people had been able to emotionally invest in.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, the heel got his way, gave a monotonous post-fight interview, and will now return to his life of having more money than one knows what to do with while also being a pillar for criticism in mass media.

Pacquiao’s team claimed after the fight that their fighter suffered a shoulder injury in training and was denied medication shortly before the fight.

This begs the question, does Pacquiao have a legitimate excuse, or is this strategic marketing from his camp to ultimately plant the seeds for a rematch that would likely do similar numbers all-around?

The actions of both parties, before, during, and after the fight are nothing that hasn’t been seen or done in pro wrestling before. The result? The highest-grossing boxing match of all time.

The only thing missing from this fight was a Money in the Bank-style cash-in during the 12th round. Then again, maybe they’re just saving it for the potential rematch.

Wrestledelphia.com staff writer Jack Goodwillie can be reached at . Follow him on Twitter at .